German Car Zone

It's okay!

You think the estate will be presented at the AMG?

I`ll bet no one else noticed the door and bumper guards found on the W211 E are not found on the W212!!..

This makes the W211 look a bit outdated..

The only thing holding the design together on the W212 is a thin chrome stripe, very 21-century..

The W212 E-Class looks like the baby sister of the Ocean Drive IMO.

You mean when the AMG versions come?

I believe the Estates will be presented before that.

ahh damn..
here at last ehh..
Such a loong wait
And it looks Freakin AMAZING..
The front is off the richter.. faar greater than any other sedan at the moment..
the whole stance of the car is very Maybachish..i love it

but the REAR
***!!!!!!!!!
I really hope that the picture is fooling me..
cause that is UGLY..it looks like a toyota camry..
I cant take it.. shiiit

I hate cars which are 2/3 perfect..and 1/3 ****** up..
LIke the 6series..
Might aswell be 3/3 ****** up..so that you can hate it with all of your heart..

Im dying to see more pix...

Damn, what a surprize!! I just read every response until this one, and the overall impression is pretty positive so far, which is good for two tiny pics.

I like the red one, but I now desperately want to see the interior.

From the pictures it looks pretty decent.

I suspect that when I see it in real life I will be warming up more the design because of the fact that it looks somewhat like an enlarged W204 C-Class and has the fender flares of the W221 S-Class, particularly at the rear where they are most obvious. In both cases I really warmed up to those cars when I saw them in real life (especially with the S-Class).

The W212 does look sportier though, but I miss that classy appearance that was so present in the W210 and W211. Maybe if I encounter the car in real life it will strike me as classy. Maybe it will appear classy in real life and not in the press photos. I think it will.

^Lol@ Artist

Initial thoughts,

Front clearly the strongest part of the design. Sort of a "I'm superior" look. Which has been missing from Benz's since the W140, welcome back.

Like the w211 the rear, to me at least, comes of as the worst of the design. I remember I thought the W211's rear resembled the Camry's at the time of it's launch. I don't feel that way anymore, and while the rear of the W212 does strike me as Korean (I'm just back from Seoul), I'm sure it will grow on me.

All in all this is the first limousine car launched by Audi, BMW and Merc since the E39, where I instantly want one.

Roll on the new fiver.

It always bothers me when people say the new E-Class front looks like a Lexus GS. Because the way I see it, this is the natural evolution of the four-eyed headlight design that began with the W210 (and possibly can even be traced back to the W123, sort off). I don't think the design teams at Mercedes would even want to copy the Lexus GS. Copying the design of a competitor car isn't really going to affect the success of a car. It's what the car offers, what it stands for and definitely even its heritage or history that will sell it. And the E-Class has lot of history and heritage and is known as a well-balanced car - even more balanced than the Lexus GS (which is a car that doesn't know what it wants to be IMO).

Actually those long rectangular rear lights look like they were inspired by a previous E-Class

The W123


Notice how MB was moving away from the triangular rear lights on the W204 whereas the W203 had them. In this case, the W211 had them and the W212 doesn't. Looks like a major styling direction change.